The names of nine Tift County men who died in battle are among the 1,400 listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. The Georgia history teacher who is organizing the Oct. 22-27 visit here of “The Moving Wall” is asking that the community tell her anything about those men and veterans of other wars so she can write it into history.

Susan Tucker teaches seventh and eighth-grade history at Eighth Street Middle School. She is the daughter of a Vietnam veteran, married a veteran and has a son who is a veteran.

At the Tuesday meeting of the Tifton Lions Club at the Golden Corral, Tucker asked members if they knew how Lt. Harold B. “Pinky” Durham Jr., a Vietnam veteran and only recipient of the Medal of Honor, got his nickname. No one did.

“I heard that when he was born, the hospital had run out of blue blankets and they wrapped him in a pink one,” Tucker said.

In addition to Durham, the names of Franklin Thomas Collins, Robert Lee Dykes Jr., Hulus Edgar Key Jr. and Harold Ray Tyson, all of Tifton; Delma Ernest Dickens of Omega and George Thomas Spillers and Joseph Ray Wynn Jr., both of Chula, appear on the wall. Tucker is planning an archival booth that will be available near “The Moving Wall” for Vietnam veterans to have their pictures taken as they appeared in boot camp. Also, she’s encouraging them to either have their story videotaped at the booth or providing a typed version to organizers and placing the information in a book that she will donate to the Tifton-Tift County Genealogical Society. Also, if anyone wants to loan war memorabilia, it will be displayed in an exhibit at the Tifton Museum of Arts and Heritage.

Tucker, a native of Tifton, began organizing a fundraising campaign in February to bring the wall to Tifton. She said six sources donated the $4,000 needed to pay the Vietnam Combat Veterans, Ltd. organization in two weeks. She hopes others in the community will volunteer and donate funds to advertise the event through local media, to print flyers to distribute, to provide food for volunteers and decorations for the wall.

Tucker organized the ESMS History Club and those students and others will join her to take responsibility for the display while it is here. The moving wall will be erected on the campus at ESMS in the area of the track. People will have access to the wall around the clock beginning the morning of Oct. 23 through the afternoon of Oct. 27.

“The Moving Wall” is a half-size replica of the Washington, D.C., Vietnam Veterans Memorial and has been touring the country for more than 20 years. Only 40 communities each year have the privilege of hosting the wall.

“This year, the only place it’s coming in Georgia is to Tifton,” Tucker said.

Tucker told Lions Club members that the memorial helps bring healing to veterans and their friends and families and their visits are sometimes very emotional.

“I feel it’s an extremely important event because the Vietnam War affected everybody,” Tucker said. “My wish is for the five days the wall is at Eighth Street Middle School, (that it will be) the No. 1 place people can go and find peace.”

“The Moving Wall” is made of Plexiglass and aluminum and is 250 feet long and four feet tall at each end and six feet tall in the center. The names of the 58,425 men and women who died in Vietnam is silk-screened on the black panels. Many of the people who visit the wall leave mementos, some of which are artifacts of the war. All of the items left at the Moving Wall are collected the last day of the display, marked, boxed and shipped to the Vietnam Combat Veterans, Ltd., office in White Pine, Mich. The artifacts are stored there until they are displayed in glass cases below the flag of each state the memorial has visited.

Anyone interested in volunteering their time or donating items may call Tucker at 229-848-6113 or e-mail her at susantucker@mchsi.com. Anyone interested in contributing to the costs associated with the exhibit may send their checks to: Eighth Street Middle School, c/o Susan Tucker, 700 W. Eighth St., Tifton, GA 31794.

To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.